American Time Use Survey  Multi-Year Microdata Files

The ATUS multi-year microdata files combine several years of previously-released and publicly-available ATUS microdata.
Because changes in time use occur relatively slowly over time, it is possible to combine multiple
years of ATUS data; doing so facilitates more detailed analyses about how Americans spend
their time.

About ATUS Data

About the Multi-Year ATUS Microdata Files

This page includes links to the 2003-11 multi-year ATUS microdata files and
supporting documentation. These multi-year files combine microdata
from the 2003 to 2011 ATUS.
Researchers can use these multi-year ATUS microdata files to
produce their own time-use estimates or do other analyses. Each ZIP file
contains a data file along with computer programs that will read the data
file into SAS, SPSS, and Stata. The data files are in CSV-format
(comma-separated values).

These files do not contain time-use estimates. Tables showing
time-use estimates for major activity categories, selected detailed
activities, and selected demographic and labor force characteristics are
available on the ATUS Web site under the headings News
Releases, Charts and Tables.

Differences Between the Multi-Year and Single-Year ATUS Microdata Files

While the multi-year files are similar in structure to the single-year files,
there are several important differences, some, but not all, of which are mentioned here:

Multi-year files are only available for the ATUS-CPS, ATUS Respondent, Roster,
Who, Activity and Activity Summary files. They are not available for the Eldercare Roster, Call History, Case History, Trips and Replicate Weights files.

The multi-year ATUS-CPS, Respondent, and Activity Summary files contain the ATUS
statistical weighting variable TUFNWGTP generated using the 2006 ATUS statistical weighting
method. Researchers wishing to generate standard errors for multi-year estimates
should take care to use the single-year replicate weights generated using the 2006 ATUS weighting method.
For more details see the ATUS User's Guide (PDF).

The 2003-11 multi-year ATUS-CPS file contains three variables that are allocation flags,
but the single-year files contain many more.
Please see the 2003-11 ATUS-CPS Data Dictionary (PDF) for details.

Basic ATUS Data

Multi-Year ATUS Data Dictionaries (PDF Files)

ATUS 2003-11 Interview Data Dictionary Describes the Respondent, Roster,
Activity, and Who files, and includes names and descriptions of the
variables appearing on these files. This dictionary should be used only
with the multi-year microdata files.

ATUS-CPS 2003-11 Data Dictionary Describes the ATUS-CPS file and includes
names and descriptions of the variables appearing on the file.
Variables on the ATUS-CPS file were collected 2 to 5 months before
the ATUS interview. This dictionary should be used only
with the multi-year ATUS-CPS microdata file.

Multi-Year ATUS Data Files

ATUS 2003-11 Roster file (zip) (1.6 MB) The Roster file contains
information about household members and nonhousehold children (under
18) of ATUS respondents. It includes information such as age and
sex.

ATUS 2003-11 Activity file (zip) (40.4 MB) The Activity file contains
information about how ATUS respondents spent their diary day. It
includes information such as activity codes, activity start and stop
times, and locations. Because Activity codes have changed somewhat
between 2003 and 2011, this file uses activity codes that appear in
the 2003-11 ATUS Coding Lexicon (PDF).

ATUS-CPS 2003-11 file (zip) (44.7 MB) The ATUS-CPS file contains information
about each household member of all individuals selected to
participate in ATUS. The information on the ATUS-CPS file was
collected 2 to 5 months before the ATUS interview.